Liam Kileen toughs it out

Riding in last week-end’s world marathon mountain bike championship Liam Kileen took the opportunity to check out Italian A & E services. They proved to be far in advance of the much vaunted NHS provision.

Kileen crashed at about 50km gashing his arm. He took himself off to hospital where, apparently, he wasn’t issued with a ticket and told to expect a wait of about four hours in the British style. Instead he received six stiches in his arm, returned to the point of the crash, and then finished the 120km race in 85th place 1hr 23 min down on the winner.